


Your Princess is in Another Castle

by Reikah



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, blame tumblr, dorky comedy, everything's better with DRAGONS, rampant nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2147319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reikah/pseuds/Reikah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dragons kidnap princesses, everyone knows this... except sometimes, they get it wrong. Or do they? A story about mistakes, misunderstandings, and flower crowns. Also Kurogane's non-stop never-ending suck of a life, and the idiot that causes all that chaos to begin with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Princess is in Another Castle

**Author's Note:**

> So on Tumblr someone posted the prompt "A young gay dragon being forced to explain to his dad why he’s only kidnapping princes." This was promptly improved by another user, who added, "A young gay prince having to explain to his dad how he keeps managing to get kidnapped by the same dragon, over and over."
> 
> I said to myself 'Kurofai,' nodded solemnly, and proceeded to write this in the span of like two hours. Whoops!

"I think," said the dragon king, Ashura Stormchaser, Ashura of the Blue Fire, Lord of the western mountains and undisputed commander of the four winds, "that perhaps we should go over the difference between a prince and a princess." After a moment he added, heavily, "Again."

"You said that a princess has nice hair and nice clothes," said his son, one of the two adopted hatchlings his realm knew as _my prince_. He coiled himself ever closer around his prize, his eyes half-lidded and very self satisfied. "I think his hair is very nice, and so are his clothes."

"I'm _right here_ ," snapped the human, brushing some dust off his shoulder; Fai had stolen him from a kingdom to the south, as far as Ashura could tell, and they had been flying for some hours. The human had a stiff posture and a sour expression, and Ashura could not discern if that was a natural component of his personality or merely the result of the journey. 

"It's the 'his' part that matters," Ashura offered carefully. "It's the difference between a princess, who we capture, and a prince, who saves her. This is not a princess. Princesses are..." He hesitated, searching for the right word. Fai snaked his silver head around on his long neck to eye his stolen prince thoughtfully; the prince made an obscene gesture at him although Ashura could recall several princesses he himself had abducted doing the same, so in and of itself this clearly meant nothing. "Not this."

Fai mantled his wings over his captive, turning big blue and slightly sulky eyes on his father. "I think he's a cute princess. Besides, I rescued him! From a fate worse than _death_!"

"It was a fucking geography class, not a torture pit," said the prince, and wriggled his way free of Fai's tail. "How many times am I going to have to explain that, idiot snake?"

"It looked boring," Fai said, unconcerned. "Aren't you happy to be here?" He blew a smoke ring shaped somewhat like a heart, and the prince snarled. It sounded familiar. 

Ashura eyed him uncertainly; he wasn't that great at telling humans apart, but he thought he recognized this one. It had changed its second skin, which made identification harder, but... "Didn't you steal this one last time?"

Fai didn't bat an eyelid. "No," he said. The prince had stopped thrashing its way free of his coils and was watching Ashura, oddly hungrily. "You're probably thinking of Yuui."

"Ah," said Ashura, who knew for a fact that Yuui had only ever stolen one princess, a desert princess from the east who had taught him flower-arranging and calligraphy before her brother and her fiance both arrived, independently and unfortunately simultaneously, to rescue her. He knew this because he had had to be the one to break up the brawl between said brother and fiance. It hadn't been pretty. Noses would never be the same again. "I see."

Fai was looking stubborn. "Do I need to give him back? If he's a prince, not a princess?"

"I've told you _seven_ times that I'm not a fucking princess, you idiot -"

"That would probably be wise," Ashura agreed hastily over the Prince's ramping foul-mouthed rant. "Perhaps offer his parents a jewel, as an apology, from your own hoard. That's what we did when I was young."

Ah, the days of his youth! When princesses wore dresses the size of the moon, and princes wore steel plate armour. Ashura sighed heavily, shaking his head at Fai's prince and his simple outfit of black silk. These second skins humans wore made it all confusing; he himself never bothered with them when he took on human guise, like most dragons. No wonder the younger generation got confused, he thought, with attire like that. Perhaps there should be a _guide_. An annotated picture reference of prince vs princess. Something so this mistake wouldn't happen again.

Fai sighed heavily. "I'll take him back tomorrow," he said, and nudged his prince with his nose. "Hey, listen, princess -"

" _Kurogane!_ " 

"- Princess Kurogane, I'll show you the Singing Spires! You can find sapphires there -"

" _Just Kurogane_ -"

"The size of your paws! Well, maybe mine, yours are a little small. That's okay, they're nice the way they are. Delicate."

"Listen, you -"

"I'll leave you two to make friends," Ashura said doubtfully, cutting over them; the stolen prince ('Kurogane!') was standing on top of Fai's tail, his face pushed right under Fai's snout. Fai's jaws were slightly parted, his ruff flared and his tailtip twitching - all playful gestures, but the human didn't look like he quite understood. This was what came of kidnapping princes, Ashura thought. Fai's eyes were half-lidded and amused. "... I will speak with you tomorrow, Fai."

"Yes, father," Fai sing-songed, and pushed the prince off his tail with his nose. "I'll look after my princess, don't you worry."

The prince's ferocious roar of _Kurogane!_ followed Ashura all the way outside the cave and into the bright mountain sunshine. Yes. Definitely familiar. He hesitated for a moment outside; and then sighed deeply and unfurled his wings, hunkering down to catch the air. He had a long way to fly tonight; he had expected something like this. He'd have to fetch Yuui, of course, for this confrontation; and maybe some of the other senior dragons...

Of course it would be Fai.

* * *

The idiot dragon had stolen him for the first time in the midst of an archery lesson, which had pissed Kurogane off to no end at the time. He _liked_ archery. 

It had been about to storm at the time; the entire northern horizon had been that great bruise-blue colour of rainheads, and his teacher had taken him out to the courtyard to teach him how to shoot in rocky pre-wind storms. He had been aiming at a sack of sand hung over a stable door when he had seen the dragon, a distant 'v' shape high in the air.

"Huh," his tutor had said, "I wonder what one of those is doing down here. Hasn't been a dragon in these parts since your mother married."

Kurogane had scowled. "If it's coming for Tomoyo I'll shoot it down," he said darkly. His sister had been five years old at the time. His tutor had given him an alarmed look, which was when the dragon had folded its wings, dropped from the sky like a stone, and landed in the courtyard with enough draft from its great silver wings to blow them both off their feet.

It was a lot bigger than Kurogane had given it credit for.

"I'm looking for a princess," it announced, while he and his tutor both helped each other up. "I need to find one so papa will stop making incredibly unsubtle hints about how old I am and how I'm not getting any younger. Are either of you princesses?"

" _No_ ," Kurogane had snapped, irritated; it swung its (horse-sized) silver head and eyed him through one blue slit-pupilled eye. "My sister's five, you can't have her. Fuck off, we were busy, you idiot."

His tutor sputtered. "Prince - Prince Kurogane! I don't know where you learned such language, but you are a prince of the royal -"

"Prince?" The dragon cocked its head to one side. "Hyuu! That's a princess minus the ess! What's a fuck?"

"Where you can go to," Kurogane had muttered mutinously. He had learned his rather impressive set of cursewords from that time his father had attempted to show him how to cook (it had been his mother's birthday; they were attempting to fry her some of her favourite sweetbread) and burned himself rather badly on the hot metal skillet. Furiously turned away from said skillet to suck on the burnt half of his hand, he had hit the handle of the skillet with his elbow, dumping the contents all over his groin. The castle cook had never looked more impressed at the ensuing tirade, although Kurogane was yet to find out what he had meant by 'scum-sucking bastard son of a weasel-eating -" because the cook had covered his ears at that point.

"You'll do," the dragon had decided cheerfully at that point, and that was the first time Kurogane had found himself abducted by Prince Fai, heir to the western mountains and lord of the northern wind.

It had been an eye-opening experience, although most of what he had experienced had been Fai being a fucking dumbass. It had been a very long trip back to the mountains, and in that time Fai had landed (thrice) in quicksilver, been attacked by bandits, eaten a yak that disagreed with him (violently), spent three hours throwing up into what turned out to be a sacred lake, and had to hurriedly depart from a tribe of (angry, spear-throwing) lake-god worshippers. He had also made Kurogane so many flower crowns. _So many_. At first Kurogane had attempted to leave him, but something (most likely pity, and also a faint shameful sense that his mother would not approve of him abandoning what was clearly the most ridiculous dragon-prince in history to die to _quicksilver_ ) had drawn him back each time. 

He had also learned that Fai could assume human form as well as dragon, didn't understand clothes, got very touchy-feely after you pulled him out of quicksilver multiple times, and had read in an instructional guide that the best way to a princess' heart was through flower crowns.

It wasn't cute. At all. Idiot.

(It kind of was.)

The idiocy continued when they arrived back at Fai's home, although unfortunately now the idiot had armed himself with a lute and a harp, neither of which he knew how to play. There were more flowers, including a bed covered in rose petals with a ruby on the pillow, "For your beautiful eyes," which Kurogane had thrown at Fai so hard it had made the idiot's eyes cross, and a harassed-looking identical twin brother, who played a mandolin better than Fai played either of his instruments and apologized deeply to Kurogane for Fai when his brother wasn't around. "He's been a bit off since mother died," said the twin, and Kurogane had grunted and eyed Fai thoughtfully. 

It wasn't that he was an unkind person. His mother had said of him that he wore his heart on his sleeve; that he tried too hard to be too much to the wrong people. He was twenty-eight and the unwed heir of a large and prosperous kingdom. He had been offered in marriage and been offered ladies in marriage numerous times and each time the proposed unions had dissolved, politely if somewhat stiffly; he had never been cruel to any of the princesses and duchesses and even queens who had come seeking a husband. He could not understand why Fai annoyed him so much, and at the same time, amused him so much. The dragon was an _idiot_.

The first time he met Ashura he had been Fai's not entirely unwilling captive for seven days. He had been practicing his archery with a gorgeous oakwood bow Fai had given him - freely and without reservation from his own hoard - when the elder dragon had turned up, and after a short and stiff conversation in which Ashura had politely informed his son that Kurogane was not a princess and therefore ought to be sent home, he had been. Fai let him keep the bow, and a handsome silver dragon sword, and made his stiff apologies to Kurogane's parents for stealing the wrong child and for the mix-up, promising not to bother "Prince Kurogane" again; Kurogane had stood next to his father, uncertain as to why his chest ached so much at Fai's deadpan expression, and when the idiot had changed forms and was stood in the courtyard, ready to take off again, had marched over to him, informed him that he was a blind idiot lizard who couldn't play the lute for shit and made terrible flower crowns, and snapped that Fai had better improve by the next time they saw each other.

It had been the only time he'd seen the idiot look pole-axed. He'd stomped away, scowling furiously at everyone else and felling oddly elated and even a little smug. He didn't question it. Nothing made sense after that.

Fai had left, and normalcy should have resumed; he went back to classes with his advisers, learning how to rule a kingdom. Tomoyo grew older. His dad swore in front of him a few more times, including a truly impressive incident involving a shield and the castle staircase in which his father swore up and down nothing could possibly go wrong with (he broke his arm and collar-bone, and Kurogane learned that it was a 'weasel-eating fuck-boat'.) His mother had fretted about him a little ("you've changed since that dragon stole you, Kurogane!" "I'm fine, mama, I promise.") and Tomoyo had given him a lot of thoughtful side-eyes when she thought he wasn't looking. 

The next year Fai had stolen him while he had been hawking in the forest. As they rose higher in the sky, Fai holding him so very carefully between claws like spears, Kurogane had watched the eagle he had hand-reared from a chick head off in the direction of the deeper forest without much concern. It could fend for itself; he wasn't entirely certain this idiot could.

Ashura didn't find out about this occasion. Fai had learned at least a little bit of caution - but not too much; the first night after they arrived back at his cave he had played Kurogane a self-composed ditty called _My Prince Is Really Loud_ on his lute incredibly out of tune, while wearing a dress and a pair of plate-metal gauntlets. With a leather blacksmith's apron over the entire ensemble. It was enough to make you despair, really, Kurogane had thought; and so he had silenced Fai with a technique learned from one of his own castle library's instructional guides, one of the naughty ones you weren't supposed to look at until you were married, with lots of pictures where the artists had clearly used young men as the models for the women. Kurogane didn't consider himself an expert on breasts by any means, but he didn't think they actually looked like apples glued into impressive pectoral muscles.

He only stayed for three days this time until Fai flew him back, but he learned a lot. A lot.

Fai sent him home with the same ruby he had once beaned the idiot on the head with. "For your beautiful eyes," he'd said again, grinning, as he left Kurogane outside the castle he called home, and Kurogane had only glared at him for lack of anything else to say. His mother had been waiting inside; she had hugged him and then drew back, her hands on his shoulders, tilted her head at him and said, cautiously, that she was glad he was home and that she had missed him, but had that been the same dragon as last time flying away from the courtyard...?

"No," Kurogane had said quickly, slipping the ruby into a pocket. "They just keep coming this way looking for Tomoyo, I guess. I'm not letting them take her."

"Ah," his mother had said, and, "I see."

Kurogane curled his fingers around the ruby. It was still warm. "You look beautiful today, mother. I'll be in the library if you need me."

"The _library_?" His mother blinked at him, and not without reason; Kurogane wasn't a huge fan of study for its own sake, and hadn't visited the library since that time he had tried to look up 'fuck-boat' in a dictionary. "What on earth for?"

"Research!" he'd called back, and must have missed her reply.

Four months later Fai kidnapped him again, and by then nobody was surprised.

* * *

"Idiot," Kurogane said, now. "I think your dad's getting suspicious."

"There's nothing for him to be suspicious of!" Fai said, laughing; they were in his personal chambers, separated from the main part of the cave Ashura had left them in by a hanging piece of cloth, and he had donned his human shape. He was still sort of coiled around Kurogane. "As far as he knows, this is the second time I've stolen you - and I'm just so silly I must have forgotten the first time, hyuu~!"

"You aren't _stealing_ me, moron lizard," Kurogane said, but it was an absent automatic response. He bent his head to scrape his teeth over Fai's throat; he smelled musky there, pleasantly so, and his whole body shivered against Kurogane most pleasingly when he did just this. "Listen - this is serious, your dad -"

"Please don't talk about my father right now," Fai said, sweetly, and shoved Kurogane onto the bed with both hands on his chest. Kurogane let himself fall, although he seized Fai's wrists and brought the idiot bouncing down on top of him. Fai came, willingly, and settled himself on top of Kurogane with his eyes half-lidded like a sphinx. His long, clever fingers roved over Kurogane's neckline, attempting to find the wooden togs holding Kurogane's shirt on. " _Humans_. You should be naked more, you know, Kuro-princess. Well. Maybe apart from a flower-crown."

"We tried that the time before last, you couldn't stop cooing over how fucking cute I was," Kurogane growled, and then remembered enough to add, "And it's _not Kuro-princess_ , you idiot."

"Mmm." Fai had found the first tog, and was slipping it through its corresponding loop; his eyes were fixed on the patch of Kurogane's chest this revealed. "The lyreflowers really _did_ bring out the colour of your eyes." He bent his head and buried his nose in the V of Kurogane's collarbones, breathing him in; Kurogane had to look sharply up at the ceiling and bite his lip so Fai wouldn't realise how fucking turned on this - this utter worship Fai had of Kurogane's human body - made him. Fai made a small, pleased noise, and slipped the next tog free.

"Would have been better if you'd hung your stupid flower-crown off my actual fucking head next time, then," Kurogane said, still staring up at the ceiling as Fai cupped his half-hard cock through his breeches; he was hard and they were uncomfortably tight. He fisted one hand in the sheets. "If you wanted to show off my actual eye-colour, I mean."

Fai slipped the last tog free, smiling a wicked smile, and pressed his hand a little harder against Kurogane's dick. "I appreciate _all_ of my princess," he purred, and Kurogane snarled and surged upward, rolling them over until it was he looming over Fai; his idiotic dragon lifted his chin, the better to showcase his throat, and _smirked_. Kurogane snorted and leaned forward, capturing the idiot's jaw; they kissed long and wet and sweet. Kurogane had given up wondering why Fai and Fai alone could make him feel this way. The guy liked to put on naked shadow puppet shows, for gods' sakes.

"I'm on top tonight," he told Fai when they parted, and the man just smirked, his eyes flicking down and then up; Kurogane kissed him again, harsher, biting his bottom lip. "And we're not doing that weird thing with the stinging ants and the honey Seishirou told you about, either. I told you never to listen to him, you moron."

Fai laughed at that, freely; Kurogane couldn't keep from grinning back at him, just a little. Maybe he would never understand this dragon, or why he lov - why he like - why he tolerated this dragon. There were other, greater mysteries in the world. Why the sun rose every day; why some stars only appeared in the winter; why sometimes the ground back home shook, randomly, and knocked down buildings. What a fuck-boat was. Maybe he wasn't meant to know. He shucked his shirt, impatiently, letting it fall to one side of the bed, and set to unlacing his breeches; Fai's hands slid over his, holding them still. He let Kurogane go and wriggled a little, sitting up, and Kurogane kissed him again. Fai's thighs were warm and solid between his.

"You're worth showing off all-over," Fai said, appreciatively, when they broke apart. He touched Kurogane's chest with one finger, tracing the curve of his abdominal muscles thoughtfully. "I'm glad I stole you, Kuro-princess."

"Someday you're going to stop fucking calling me that," Kurogane said tetchily, and Fai chuckled and leaned in to kiss him again, on the edge of his mouth; he kissed his way down then, along Kurogane's jawline, and Kurogane lifted his chin to grant the idiot access to his throat. There was something unbelievably erotic in the softness of Fai's lips, the hint of teeth scraping over his skin, the wet warmth of his mouth. 

The first time they had done this it had been a near-disaster. He had kissed Fai, partially because he wanted to and partially to end the terrible rendition of _My Prince Is Really Loud_ Fai had been caterwauling at the time; Fai had drawn back and stared at him with a hilariously baffled expression on his face, and Kurogane had realised then that Fai _was not human_ , that Fai had never experienced this way of showing affection before nor seen it in other dragons around him. They had kissed a lot that day, tenderly and sweetly and then filthy and hot. And then there had been a blowjob. That had been fucking awful too, Kurogane recalled, fondly. But that had been a while ago; Fai had stolen him numerous times since then, most by mutual arrangement, and now... now they knew a bit more about each other, knew a bit more about how their bodies worked together. Knew that Kurogane's throat and collarbones were sensitive, knew that Fai liked kissing, knew that Kurogane didn't much care for being sucked off but liked to do the same to Fai. Knew each other a bit better.

("This dragon who keeps stealing you, kid," his father had said one day, fitting his own custom warhorse armour to his steed - a new design supposedly built around the concept of 'the best defense is a good offense' - "Does he treat you right?"

"He's an idiot," Kurogane had said, folding the collar of his shirt up higher, and his father had looked at him for several long seconds before nodding once, thoroughly, and stepping back to admire said custom armour, which appeared to have transformed a perfectly ordinary horse into an iron hedgehog. "Does it really need this many spikes?"

" _Everything_ needs this many spikes," the Prince-consort had said, very firmly, and Kurogane had decided not to argue.)

This was not new. It was good, but not new. And that was fine. Kurogane would never know why Fai, why they were - the way they were, and that was fine; he knew Fai and knew what he liked and what he didn't, and he wanted... he wanted Fai to be happy.

It hadn't been in any of those awkwardly drawn books, but that was fine. He had a worrying feeling that he knew, in his heart of hearts, what this was, and it wasn't a dragon kidnapping a princess, wasn't some knight coming to her rescue; it was his parents, it was something deeper. He refused to name it, even in his own head, but he didn't think it mattered. He knew exactly what he felt for Fai, what Fai felt for him, and it was _silly_ , just like Fai was silly, and that was fine. It was them, and it was good, and it didn't need words to be real.

It was certainly better than the time with the naked shadow puppetry.

* * *

Fai's inner cave - containing his most valuable possessions, such as his treasure hoard, his lute, and lately, Kurogane - was sealed off from the main chamber by a thin piece of cloth, designed more for the illusion of privacy than anything else. While it obscured the contents of the inner chamber from sight, it did not halt much of the light, and so it was that Kurogane woke the next morning to a sunbeam directly in the face, an experience not exactly a joy or a delight. His right arm had fallen asleep, most likely because Fai was using his elbow joint as a pillow. The idiot had drooled all over him, too, which was not as cute nor as fun as it had been last night. Kurogane shoved him off, solidly, and got out of bed slowly; he had bruises purpling in odd places, like the inside of his thighs and his collar bones and one hip and, embarrassingly, his lower back. His backside also twinged, although that one he would _never complain about in a million years_.

"Oi," he said, and shoved at Fai's shoulder; the moron had rolled off him and was currently lying in a ridiculous and uncomfortable-looking position, his neck crooked oddly around his pillow and his mouth hanging open. His tongue was lolling out and he was making small, stupid snorting noises. "You need to take me to that lake in the valley you took me last time. I'm gross and it's your fault."

"Mmm," Fai said very faintly, and rolled one arm over his eyes. "Not _just_ my fault. Do we need to go now?" He lifted his arm from his left eye; he was still very sleepy, Kurogane could tell by the dragon-eye. It was wholly blue, with a black vertical slit for a pupil. After a few seconds Fai blinked and the eye became more human in appearance. He only let his eyes slip like that when he was tired. 

"Yeah," Kurogane said, sternly. "You're meant to be taking me back today. Remember, your dad? Come on, dragon."

"Uwaaaaaaah," Fai said, opening both his eyes now, "Kuro-prince referred to me as a _dragon_! He knows what I am! I'm so happy I could kiss him! Again."

"Next time," Kurogane said, a little wistfully, and Fai sighed, some of the mirth slipping away from him; they looked at each other for a long moment, the shadows around their eyes a little deeper, and then broke eye contact. It would have to be a few more months until the next time Fai 'stole' him. He might even need to steal a princess, a real princess, in the meantime.

They said nothing for several long moments, each of them sitting there, just savoring the moment; the warm, rumpled sheets of Fai's bed, the smell of them in the air. Fai's heap of immensely gaudy jewelry just out of the sight. That fucking lute, left on a carved chair; Kurogane's shirt and breeches on the floor, his boots haphazardly stacked next to the wall; Fai's latest outfit - a pair of crumpled tights, two different boots, and a rough woollen tabard - piled up next to them. After a while Kurogane said, "If you steal Tomoyo I will murder you," and Fai barked a laugh.

"We should get going," he said, sitting up, and Kurogane nodded without looking at him.

He dressed in silence; Fai was sat up in bed watching him, his arms around his knees and his expression pensive. When Kurogane was fully clothed in yesterday's outfit - a little crumpled and the worse for wear, although not too bad - he stirred, standing up; he had faint bruises forming over him, too; his thighs and hips, one Kurogane didn't remember leaving on the curve of one arse cheek which made him blush furiously. Fai was smirking like a fucking cat, the bastard.

"Hey," Kurogane said, catching Fai's wrist as the dragon-prince brushed past him; Fai turned, lifting his eyebrows, and for a moment they stood together, two princes, Fai's wrist thin and so very human in Kurogane's palm. "Hey, uh. I'll miss you, idiot. Until next time, and all."

"There will be a next time, Kuro-princess," Fai said softly, and leaned up on the balls of his feet to kiss Kurogane, very gently, on the mouth. It was dry and gentle, this kiss, a true parting kiss; but not for long. Kurogane let him go, and he headed toward the curtain, Kurogane on his heels; "I'll have a new song for you then. I can feel the first line forming now."

"You can, can you?" Kurogane said, with a sort of punch-drunk fondness in his chest, watching the way Fai's blue eyes sparkled as he pushed back the curtain. "How does it go?"

" _There once was a prince named Kuro-bite_ ," Fai sang, grinning, " _Who made the best noises -_ "

He stopped, rather abruptly; Kurogane walked right into him.

"Do continue," said King Ashura mildly, seated at a round table in Fai's main chamber that hadn't been there yesterday. Kurogane had never seen him in a human shape before, but he could recognise him, somehow. Maybe it was the unreadable, calm manner. Maybe it was the dark hair, and the golden eyes.

Fai's eyes were round as saucers. Yuui was sitting next to their father; he had his face buried in both his hands, whether in despair or humiliation Kurogane couldn't tell, but didn't have time to worry about because _there were four chairs at the table -_

"Kurogane," said his mother, with some disappointment, putting her cup down on the table. His father waved at him cheerfully from her side, between her and Yuui. One of his arms was in a sling, and he had no eyebrows.

"Oh my god," Kurogane said, automatically, because like most dragons _Ashura wasn't wearing any clothes_. His knees suddenly felt very weak. 

"Um," said Fai, his glib tongue seeming to have deserted him. "Hello?"

"Can I go?" Yuui asked Ashura. Despairing it was, then. At least he wasn't naked. It was a low bar to meet in terms of presentation, but so far two of the six people in this room weren't making it. 

"No," Ashura said to him. "You are a part of this family, and you need to be present for this meeting."

"This is a meeting?" Fai sounded as dazed as Kurogane felt. 

"Kurogane," said his mother, very gently, "Are you going to introduce us?"

He shook his head, wordlessly. This was a nightmare. Fai's father and his parents had seen - had heard - " _How long have you been here_?"

"Not long, kid," said his father, clearly taking pity on him. "King Ashura brought us here, one fellow ruler to another, about an hour ago. Said it was urgent. Don't worry, nobody's mad. We just want to know who your, uh, young man is."

" _Why_ are you wearing a sling?"

Kurogane's mother sighed deeply. "He launched a fire arrow into the apothecary's tower from the top of the library to prove that he could. Then he tried to get over there and put the fire out before I found out." She glanced at her husband fondly. "He moves very fast, your father."

"It runs in the family," Fai murmured, still looking a little pole-axed.

Kurogane swallowed. "How long have you - have you, uh. Have you known?"

"Since the first time you came back," his mother said, carefully. "We - we realised you missed your dragon. And then when he kidnapped you, again, we, um. Well. Kurogane, we love you, and we want you to be happy. We didn't want to push you while you were still - trying to realise what you wanted." After an awkward pause, in which Ashura brushed dust off his _naked lap_ fucking hell Kurogane's life had gotten four thousand degrees stranger, she continued, brightly, "So this is Prince Fai?"

Fai swallowed, looked down at himself, glanced back at Kurogane helplessly, and then took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders out, and said, "I am indeed. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, ma'am!"

"Do not shake my mother's hand while you are naked," Kurogane said flatly, as he started to do just that, and his idiot _blushed_.

"I'll - I'll go put some clothes on."

"Nope," Kurogane said, still flatly. That bruise on the curve of Fai's arse was taunting him; he'd take full-frontal nudity in front of his parents over them seeing _that_ particular mark.

"I _told_ you that screwing your prince behind a thin piece of semi-transparent cloth was a bad idea," Yuui muttered.

"I wanted to tell you that I am happy for you too, Fai," Ashura said, ignoring this. He rose from his chair and made his way over to Fai, who looked like he wanted to sink through the floor, and placed both hands on his shoulders, pulling him into an _incredibly awkward_ embrace. Yuui slunk down so low in his chair only the top of his head was visible, while Kurogane's parents sighed, affectionately, and held hands over the table-top, looking at each other with misty eyes.

"This isn't happening," Kurogane said, marveling at the infinite strangeness of his dreams.

Ashura had released Fai from his (awkward) embrace; he held his son at arm's length and smiled at him warmly. "Prince, princess, I've only ever wanted happiness for you, Fai. You don't need to hide your prince anymore."

Fai glanced back at Kurogane, lifting his eyebrows just slightly; Kurogane felt some of that mild horror fade away. Fai was _Fai_. He was an idiot and a moron and Kurogane lov - lik - was attached to him. The edges of Fai's mouth turned up, and he turned back to his father. "Thank you, papa," he said, softly. "I think Kuro-princess will be with me for a while."

His father clapped him on the shoulder. "Excellent," he said, and then briskly continued, "So, have you got a nesting chamber prepared for when your mate begins laying the eggs?"

This time Yuui didn't even seek permission before fleeing, and, all things considered, through the outrage, Kurogane really couldn't say he blamed him.

_-fin_


End file.
